Contents

The title is a reference to nuclear war and to the plot by the novel's antagonists to reconstruct a lost nuclear weapon.
The title comes from a Winston Churchill quote serving as the first of the novel's two epigraphs:

Why, you may take the most gallant sailor, the most intrepid airman or the most audacious soldier, put them at a table together—what do you get? The sum of their fears.

During the Yom Kippur War, the Israeli Defense Force prepares to conduct a tactical nuclear strike to stave off defeat. The necessity for the strike is averted, but an Israeli copy of a Mark 12 nuclear bomb is accidentally left on an A-4 Skyhawk attack aircraft, which is subsequently shot down over Syria. The nuclear weapon is lost, buried in the field of a Druze farmer. Eighteen years later, an Israeli police captain (coincidentally the brother of the downed pilot) shoots and kills a Palestinian activist during a peaceful public demonstration. The United States finds itself unable to diplomatically defend Israel, yet knows it cannot withdraw its support without risk of destabilizing the Middle East.

Following the advice of Jack Ryan, the U.S. enacts a plan to accelerate the peace process by converting Jerusalem into a Vatican-like independent state to be administered by a tribunal of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian religious leaders, and secured by an independent contingent of the Swiss Guards. As a nod to Israel, the U.S. Army supplies the IDF with more sophisticated equipment and agrees to construct a training base in the Negev Desert run by the U.S. Army's tank warfare specialists. To everyone's surprise, Ryan's plan seems to work. With their religious contentions appeased, the factions in the Middle East find it much easier to negotiate their disputes.

However, National Security Advisor Elizabeth Elliott holds a grudge against Ryan and attempts to discredit him, exploiting her romance with the widowed President Robert Fowler to do so. With her encouragement, Fowler disavows Ryan's role in the peace settlement. Unsatisfied, Elliott then engineers a smear campaign accusing Ryan of engaging in an extramarital affair, and fathering a child with a young widow. Jack's friends, agents John Clark and Domingo Chavez, convince Ryan's wife Cathy that the allegations are false (Jack's alleged mistress is Carol Zimmer, widow of Buck Zimmer, who was killed during Ryan and Clark's mission to rescue Chavez and army friends from Colombia in Clancy's preceding novel, Clear and Present Danger). Ryan decides to retire from the CIA, but not before he puts together a covert operation to uncover corrupt dealings between Japanese and Mexican government officials.

Meanwhile, a small group of PFLP terrorists, enraged at the looming failure of their crusade against Israel, come across the lost Israeli bomb and use it to construct their own weapon, using the bomb's plutonium as fissile material. The terrorists enlist the help of disaffected East German physicist Manfred Fromm, who agrees to the plot to exact revenge for his former communist country's reunification as a capitalist democratic state. With Fromm's expertise, the terrorists enhance the weapon and turn it into a thermonuclear device.

The terrorists agree to detonate the weapon during the Super Bowl in Denver, planned to coincide with a false flag attack on U.S. forces in Berlin by East Germans disguised as Soviet soldiers, aiming to begin a nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The East Germans hope that the war will eliminate both superpowers and punish the Soviets for betraying World Socialism, while the Palestinians hope the attack will destroy the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement and end U.S. aid to Israel.

Thinking his work is done, the Palestinians kill Fromm. However, Fromm had not yet told them that some of the material he planned to use needed to be purified first. The Palestinians finish the bomb assembly and when it is used, the impure material causes the weapon to fizzle. However, almost everyone at the Super Bowl is killed, including the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State, and the commander of NORAD. With the attacks in Berlin, the United States briefly assumes DEFCON-1 status as Fowler and Elliott prepare for a nuclear war. The crisis is averted by Ryan, who learns of the domestic origin for the bomb's plutonium, gains access to the hot line, and convinces the Soviet President to stand down his country's military.

When the terrorists are captured and interrogated by Clark in Mexico City, they implicate the Iranianayatollah in the attack. President Fowler orders the Ayatollah's residence in the holy city of Qom to be destroyed by a nuclear strike. After Ryan averts the attack by enforcing the two-man rule, Ryan lies and claims that Qom was destroyed. The terrorists then reveal that Iran was not involved, and that their deceit was meant to discredit the United States and destroy the peace process, allowing the campaign against Israel to continue. Elliot is hospitalized after suffering a nervous breakdown, while Fowler leaves office and is succeeded by his Vice President, Roger Durling (it is implied that Fowler was removed from office through the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, but a later novel clarifies that Fowler resigned in disgrace, while Elliott was forcibly removed).

The terrorists are executed by beheading in Riyadh by the commander of the Saudi Arabian special forces using an ancient sword owned by the royal family of Saudi Arabia. Later, the sword is presented to Ryan as a gift. In the sequels, the gift (combined with his origins as a Marine) inspires Ryan's Secret Service codename of "Swordsman".

Clancy has said that he based the character of the U.S. president Fowler on Michael Dukakis, saying that he felt that left-wing politicians were more likely to use nuclear weapons than right-wing ones.[1]

A database file with certain limited details about John Clark is included as background information within the first Rainbow Six game, and moreover, the same database entry is also found in many of the sequel games. That entry mentions in passing that “the Denver, Colorado atomic detonation [occurred] in 1989.” That information might not be canonical, since the book is presumably set after both the fall of the Berlin Wall (November 9, 1989) and possibly the First Persian Gulf War (January-February 1991). If it is canonical, though, this means that the book is not set in the same year it was published. A second inference is that 1989 was likely the year in which President Fowler’s administration ended.

The Vatican-like solution for Jerusalem, implemented in the book, is ultimately derived from the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, which indeed provided for making Jerusalem such a "Corpus separatum" (Latin for "separated body"). The course which the 1948 Palestine war took prevented implementation of this plan. In later years, various peace plans and diplomatic initiatives sought to revive the idea, but in reality it has never come close to implementation. The plan is known for being popular outside the Middle East, but unpopular among the actual residents of Jerusalem, who would prefer that their "side" should rule entirely rather than submit to a neutral administration.

1.
Tom Clancy
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Thomas Leo Tom Clancy Jr. was an American novelist and video game designer best known for his technically detailed espionage and military-science story lines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of his novels were bestsellers, and more than 100 million copies of his books are in print and his name was also used on movie scripts written by ghost writers, nonfiction books on military subjects, and video games. He was a part-owner of the Baltimore Orioles and vice-chairman of their community activities, Clancys literary career began in 1984 when he sold The Hunt for Red October for $5,000. His works, The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, Clancy died on October 1,2013, of an undisclosed illness. Clancy was born on April 12,1947, at Franklin Square Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland and he was the second of three children to Thomas Clancy, who worked for the United States Postal Service, and Catherine Clancy, who worked in a stores credit department. His mother worked to him to the private Catholic Loyola Blakefield in Towson, Maryland. He then attended Loyola College in Baltimore, graduating in 1969 with a degree in English literature, while at university, he was president of the chess club. He joined the Army Reserve Officers Training Corps, however, he was ineligible to serve due to his nearsightedness, after graduating, he worked for an insurance company in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1973, he joined the O. F. Bowen Agency, in 1980, he purchased the insurance agency from his wifes grandmother and wrote novels in his spare time. While working at the agency, he wrote his debut novel. Clancys literary career began in 1982 when he started writing The Hunt for Red October and she believed Clancy had an innate storytelling ability, and his characters had this very witty dialogue. The publisher requested Clancy to cut numerous technical details, amounting to about 100 pages, Clancy, who had wanted to sell 5,000 copies, ended up selling over 45,000. The book was praised for its technical accuracy, which led to Clancys meeting several high-ranking officers in the U. S. military. All but two of Clancys solely written novels feature Jack Ryan or John Clark, the Cold War epic Red Storm Rising was co-written with fellow military-oriented author Larry Bond. The first NetForce novel, titled Net Force, was adapted as a 1999 TV movie starring Scott Bakula, the first Op-Center novel was released to coincide with a 1995 NBC television miniseries of the same name starring Harry Hamlin and a cast of stars. Though the miniseries did not continue, the series did, but later had little in common with the first TV miniseries other than the title. Clancy wrote several books about various branches of the U. S. He also branded several lines of books and video games with his name that are written by other authors, by 1988, Clancy had earned $1.3 million for The Hunt for Red October and had signed a $3 million contract for his next three books

2.
Jack Ryan (Tom Clancy character)
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Dr John Patrick Jack Ryan, Sr. KCVO, Ph. D. is a fictional character created by Tom Clancy who appears in many of his novels and their respective film adaptations. Jack Ryan was born in Baltimore in 1950 and grew up there and he earned an NROTC commission in the Marines at Boston College. Medically discharged at the rank of 2ndLt following a helicopter crash and he met and married Caroline Cathy Mueller, a medical student and later an ophthalmic surgeon, with whom he had four children. He returned to academia, eventually accepting a position at the U. S. Naval Academy and he was later recommended to the CIA, eventually spending a short period there writing a position paper, as well as developing a counter-espionage mechanism. He returned to the academy and, while on a research trip to London. After his return to the States, he accepted a position with the CIA. He rose rapidly through the ranks in a variety of operations against the USSR. As DDI, he had political battles that led to him becoming President of the United States, Ryan had his background established in Patriot Games and Red Rabbit. He was born in 1950, the son of Emmet William Ryan, a Baltimore Police Department homicide lieutenant, the elder Ryan had served with the U. S. Armys 101st Airborne Division at the Battle of the Bulge. His mother, Catherine Burke Ryan, was a nurse, without Remorse mentioned that he had a sister, who lived in Seattle. S. While waiting for the Corps to assign him, he passed the Certified Public Accountant exam, after officer training at Marine Corps Base Quantico, he went on to serve as a platoon commander. The crash badly injured Ryans back, U. S. Navy surgeons, at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, inadequately repaired his back. This led to a recovery process after which, complete with a permanent disability and wearing a back brace. He passed his stockbrokers exam and took a position with Wall Street investment firm Merrill Lynchs Baltimore office and his parents died in a plane crash at Chicago Midway International Airport,19 months after his crash in Crete. He developed a fear of flying that persisted for years, the film version of The Hunt for Red October changed his education background to being a 1972 graduate of the US Naval Academy. Ryans story starts in Patriot Games and continues in Red Rabbit and he did so well that one of Merrill Lynchs senior vice presidents, Joe Muller, came to Baltimore to have dinner with him, with the objective of inviting him to the firms New York City headquarters. Also present is Mullers daughter Caroline, nicknamed Cathy, then a medical student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. They immediately fall in love and get engaged, one night, while having dinner with his fiancée, Ryan throws out his back

3.
G. P. Putnam's Sons
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G. P. Putnams Sons is an American book publisher based in New York City, New York. Since 1996, it has been an imprint of the Penguin Group, the company began as Wiley & Putnam with the 1838 partnership between George Palmer Putnam and John Wiley, whose father had founded his own company in 1807. In 1841, Putnam went to London where he set up a branch office, in 1848, he returned to New York, where he dissolved the partnership with John Wiley and established G. Putnam Broadway, publishing a variety of works including quality illustrated books. Wiley began John Wiley, which is still an independent publisher to the present day, Putnam & Co. started Putnam’s Magazine with Charles Frederick Briggs as its editor. On George Palmer Putnam’s death in 1872, his sons George H. John and Irving inherited the business, son George H. Putnam became president of the firm, a position he held for the next fifty-two years. In 1874, the company established its own printing and manufacturing office, set up by John Putnam. On the death of George H. Putnam in 1930, the various Putnam heirs voted to merge the firm with Minton, George Palmer Putnams grandson, George P. Putnam, left the firm at that time. Melville Minton, the partner and sales manager of Minton Balch & Co. became acting president, in 1936, Putnam acquired the publisher Coward-McCann, and ran it as an imprint into the 1980s. Upon Melville Mintons death, his son Walter J. Minton took command of Putnams and brought the company to its lofty heights as one of the countrys most respected, in 1965, G. P. Putnams Sons acquired Berkley Books, a mass market paperback publishing house. Ten years later, Putnam Publishing Group and Berkley Publishing Group were sold to MCA, in 1982, Putnam acquired the respected childrens book publisher, Grosset & Dunlap, from Filmways. In 1996, the company was bought by the Penguin Group, the new owners merged Putnam/Berkley with Penguin USA to form Penguin Putnam Inc. who uses the name to publish the G. P. Putnams Sons Books for Young Readers, in 2013, Penguin merged with Bertelsmanns Random House, forming Penguin Random House. Some of the authors associated with G. P. Putnams Sons. Notes Bibliography About Putnam at Penguin Group

4.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker

5.
OCLC
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The Online Computer Library Center is a US-based nonprofit cooperative organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the worlds information and reducing information costs. It was founded in 1967 as the Ohio College Library Center, OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the largest online public access catalog in the world. OCLC is funded mainly by the fees that libraries have to pay for its services, the group first met on July 5,1967 on the campus of the Ohio State University to sign the articles of incorporation for the nonprofit organization. The group hired Frederick G. Kilgour, a former Yale University medical school librarian, Kilgour wished to merge the latest information storage and retrieval system of the time, the computer, with the oldest, the library. The goal of network and database was to bring libraries together to cooperatively keep track of the worlds information in order to best serve researchers and scholars. The first library to do online cataloging through OCLC was the Alden Library at Ohio University on August 26,1971 and this was the first occurrence of online cataloging by any library worldwide. Membership in OCLC is based on use of services and contribution of data, between 1967 and 1977, OCLC membership was limited to institutions in Ohio, but in 1978, a new governance structure was established that allowed institutions from other states to join. In 2002, the structure was again modified to accommodate participation from outside the United States. As OCLC expanded services in the United States outside of Ohio, it relied on establishing strategic partnerships with networks, organizations that provided training, support, by 2008, there were 15 independent United States regional service providers. OCLC networks played a key role in OCLC governance, with networks electing delegates to serve on OCLC Members Council, in early 2009, OCLC negotiated new contracts with the former networks and opened a centralized support center. OCLC provides bibliographic, abstract and full-text information to anyone, OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat—the OCLC Online Union Catalog, the largest online public access catalog in the world. WorldCat has holding records from public and private libraries worldwide. org, in October 2005, the OCLC technical staff began a wiki project, WikiD, allowing readers to add commentary and structured-field information associated with any WorldCat record. The Online Computer Library Center acquired the trademark and copyrights associated with the Dewey Decimal Classification System when it bought Forest Press in 1988, a browser for books with their Dewey Decimal Classifications was available until July 2013, it was replaced by the Classify Service. S. The reference management service QuestionPoint provides libraries with tools to communicate with users and this around-the-clock reference service is provided by a cooperative of participating global libraries. OCLC has produced cards for members since 1971 with its shared online catalog. OCLC commercially sells software, e. g. CONTENTdm for managing digital collections, OCLC has been conducting research for the library community for more than 30 years. In accordance with its mission, OCLC makes its research outcomes known through various publications and these publications, including journal articles, reports, newsletters, and presentations, are available through the organizations website. The most recent publications are displayed first, and all archived resources, membership Reports – A number of significant reports on topics ranging from virtual reference in libraries to perceptions about library funding

6.
Dewey Decimal Classification
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The Dewey Decimal Classification, or Dewey Decimal System, is a proprietary library classification system first published in the United States by Melvil Dewey in 1876. It has been revised and expanded through 23 major editions, the latest issued in 2011 and it is also available in an abridged version suitable for smaller libraries. It is currently maintained by the Online Computer Library Center, a cooperative that serves libraries. OCLC licenses access to a version for catalogers called WebDewey. The Decimal Classification introduced the concepts of relative location and relative index which allow new books to be added to a library in their location based on subject. Libraries previously had given books permanent shelf locations that were related to the order of acquisition rather than topic, the classifications notation makes use of three-digit Arabic numerals for main classes, with fractional decimals allowing expansion for further detail. Using Arabic numerals for symbols, it is flexible to the degree that numbers can be expanded in linear fashion to cover aspects of general subjects. A library assigns a number that unambiguously locates a particular volume in a position relative to other books in the library. The number makes it possible to find any book and to return it to its place on the library shelves. The classification system is used in 200,000 libraries in at least 135 countries, the major competing classification system to the Dewey Decimal system is the Library of Congress Classification system created by the U. S. Melvil Dewey was an American librarian and self-declared reformer and he was a founding member of the American Library Association and can be credited with the promotion of card systems in libraries and business. He developed the ideas for his classification system in 1873 while working at Amherst College library. He applied the classification to the books in library, until in 1876 he had a first version of the classification. In 1876, he published the classification in pamphlet form with the title A Classification and Subject Index for Cataloguing and Arranging the Books and he used the pamphlet, published in more than one version during the year, to solicit comments from other librarians. It is not known who received copies or how many commented as only one copy with comments has survived, in March 1876, he applied for, and received copyright on the first edition of the index. The edition was 44 pages in length, with 2,000 index entries, comprised 314 pages, with 10,000 index entries. Editions 3–14, published between 1888 and 1942, used a variant of this same title, Dewey modified and expanded his system considerably for the second edition. In an introduction to that edition Dewey states that nearly 100 persons hav contributed criticisms, one of the innovations of the Dewey Decimal system was that of positioning books on the shelves in relation to other books on similar topics

7.
Library of Congress Classification
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The Library of Congress Classification is a system of library classification developed by the Library of Congress. It is used by most research and academic libraries in the U. S. the Classification is also distinct from Library of Congress Subject Headings, the system of labels such as Boarding schools and Boarding schools—Fiction that describe contents systematically. The classification was invented by Herbert Putnam in 1897, just before he assumed the librarianship of Congress, with advice from Charles Ammi Cutter, it was influenced by his Cutter Expansive Classification, the Dewey Decimal System, and the Putnam Classification System. It was designed specifically for the purposes and collection of the Library of Congress to replace the fixed location system developed by Thomas Jefferson, by the time Putnam departed from his post in 1939, all the classes except K and parts of B were well developed. LCC has been criticized for lacking a theoretical basis, many of the classification decisions were driven by the practical needs of that library rather than epistemological considerations. Although it divides subjects into broad categories, it is essentially enumerative in nature and that is, it provides a guide to the books actually in one librarys collections, not a classification of the world. In 2007 the Wall Street Journal reported that in the countries it surveyed most public libraries, the National Library of Medicine classification system uses the initial letters W and QS–QZ, which are not used by LCC. Some libraries use NLM in conjunction with LCC, eschewing LCCs R for Medicine, others use LCCs QP–QR schedules and include Medicine R. Subclass AC – Collections. Collected works Subclass AE – Encyclopedias Subclass AG – Dictionaries and other reference works Subclass AI – Indexes Subclass AM – Museums. Collectors and collecting Subclass AN – Newspapers Subclass AP – Periodicals Subclass AS – Academies, directories Subclass AZ – History of scholarship and learning. The humanities Subclass B – Philosophy Subclass BC – Logic Subclass BD – Speculative philosophy Subclass BF – Psychology Subclass BH – Aesthetics Subclass BJ – Ethics Subclass BL – Religions, rationalism Subclass BM – Judaism Subclass BP – Islam. Seals Subclass CE – Technical Chronology, calendar Subclass CJ – Numismatics Subclass CN – Inscriptions. Former Soviet Republics – Poland Subclass DL – Northern Europe, maps Subclass GA – Mathematical geography. Cartography Subclass GB – Physical geography Subclass GC – Oceanography Subclass GE – Environmental Sciences Subclass GF – Human ecology, anthropogeography Subclass GN – Anthropology Subclass GR – Folklore Subclass GT – Manners and customs Subclass GV – Recreation. Leisure Subclass H – Social sciences Subclass HA – Statistics Subclass HB – Economic theory, demography Subclass HC – Economic history and conditions Subclass HD – Industries. Labor Subclass HE – Transportation and communications Subclass HF – Commerce Subclass HG – Finance Subclass HJ – Public finance Subclass HM – Sociology Subclass HN – Social history, Social reform Subclass HQ – The family. Marriage, Women and Sexuality Subclass HS – Societies, secret, benevolent, races Subclass HV – Social pathology. Municipal government Subclass JV – Colonies and colonization, International migration Subclass JX – International law, see JZ and KZ Subclass JZ – International relations Subclass K – Law in general

8.
Debt of Honor
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Debt of Honor is a thriller novel by Tom Clancy. It is a continuation of the series featuring his character Jack Ryan, in this installment, Ryan has become the National Security Advisor when the Japanese government goes to war with the United States. One of the sub-plots in this novel would later part of the main plot of Clancys later novel The Bear. In New York City, Japanese industrialist Raizo Yamata purchases a controlling interest in a U. S. mutual fund group. He flies to Saipan and visits Banzai Cliff — the site of his parents suicide during the U. S. invasion of the island at the close of World War II — to buy a tract of land. Meanwhile, in eastern Tennessee, a car accident involving two Japanese-made vehicles leads to the deaths of six people, revelations about manufacturing and shipping errors that led to the deaths stir long-standing resentment against Japans protectionist trade policies. As trade negotiations between the United States and Japan grind to a halt, Congress passes a law enabling the U. S. to mirror the trade practices of the countries from which it imports goods. The bill is used to reciprocate Japans non-tariff barriers, cutting off the U. S. export markets upon which the Japanese economy depends. Facing an economic crisis, Japans ruling corporate cabal, led by Yamata, along with covert support from China and India, they plot to curtail the U. S. presence in the Pacific and re-establish the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. In the wake of these developments, Jack Ryan is recruited as National Security Advisor by President Roger Durling, meanwhile, CIA officers John Clark and Domingo Chavez are sent to Japan to reactivate a former KGB commercial spy network in order to gain intelligence. Meanwhile, Japan has covertly developed nuclear weapons and with SS-18 designs bought from the Soviet Union has fabricated and deployed several ICBMs, Japan launches the first phase of its assault, sending Self-Defense Force units to occupy the Mariana Islands, specifically Saipan and Guam. The invasion, with the troops transported by commercial airliners, is virtually bloodless, meanwhile, during a joint military exercise, Japanese ships accidentally launch torpedoes at the U. S. Pacific Fleet, destroying two submarines and crippling two aircraft carriers, the Enterprise and the John C, as a result, the U. S. capability to project power into the western Pacific is drastically reduced. An immediate retaliation is forestalled by the phase of the Japanese offensive. Even as the offensive begins, Japan engineers the collapse of the U. S. The Japanese also assassinate the chairman of the Federal Reserve, with a massive economic crisis and subsequent mass panic, the Japanese hope that the U. S. will be too distracted to quickly respond to Japans military actions. Japan immediately sues for peace, offering international talks and seemingly free elections in the Marianas to delay a U. S. response, negotiators secretly reveal to the U. S. that Japan has obtained nuclear ballistic missile capability. With two of the U. S. Navys twelve carriers disabled, and the rest pinned down by a mix of maintenance and international crises elsewhere, despite his typical focus on military issues, Ryan advises President Durling to deal with the economic crisis first

9.
Thriller (genre)
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Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film and television, having numerous subgenres. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation, successful examples of thrillers are the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Thrillers generally keep the audience on the edge of their seats as the plot builds towards a climax, the cover-up of important information is a common element. Literary devices such as red herrings, plot twists, and cliffhangers are used extensively, a thriller is usually a villain-driven plot, whereby he or she presents obstacles that the protagonist must overcome. Homers Odyssey is one of the oldest stories in the Western world and is regarded as a prototype of the thriller. Thrillers may be defined by the mood that they elicit. In short, if it thrills, it is a thriller, as the introduction to a major anthology explains, Suspense is a crucial characteristic of the thriller genre. It gives the viewer a feeling of pleasurable fascination and excitement mixed with apprehension, anticipation and tension and these develop from unpredictable, mysterious and rousing events during the narrative, which make the viewer or reader think about the outcome of certain actions. Suspense builds in order to make those final moments, no matter how short, the suspense in a story keeps the person hooked to reading or watching more until the climax is reached. In terms of expectations, it may be contrasted with curiosity. The objective is to deliver a story with sustained tension, surprise, the second type of suspense is the. anticipation wherein we either know or else are fairly certain about what is going to happen but are still aroused in anticipation of its actual occurrence. According to Greek philosopher Aristotle in his book Poetics, suspense is an important building block of literature, common methods and themes in crime and action thrillers are mainly ransoms, captivities, heists, revenge, kidnappings. Common in mystery thrillers are investigations and the whodunit technique, common elements in dramatic and psychological thrillers include plot twists, psychology, obsession and mind games. Common in horror thrillers are serial killers, stalking, deathtraps, elements such as fringe theories, false accusations and paranoia are common in paranoid thrillers. Threats to entire countries, spies, espionage, conspiracies, assassins, the themes frequently include terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit, or romantic triangles leading to murder. Plots of thrillers involve characters which come into conflict with other or with outside forces. The protagonist of these films is set against a problem, no matter what subgenre a thriller film falls into, it will emphasize the danger that the protagonist faces. While protagonists of thrillers have traditionally been men, women characters are increasingly common

10.
Jack Ryan (character)
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Dr John Patrick Jack Ryan, Sr. KCVO, Ph. D. is a fictional character created by Tom Clancy who appears in many of his novels and their respective film adaptations. Jack Ryan was born in Baltimore in 1950 and grew up there and he earned an NROTC commission in the Marines at Boston College. Medically discharged at the rank of 2ndLt following a helicopter crash and he met and married Caroline Cathy Mueller, a medical student and later an ophthalmic surgeon, with whom he had four children. He returned to academia, eventually accepting a position at the U. S. Naval Academy and he was later recommended to the CIA, eventually spending a short period there writing a position paper, as well as developing a counter-espionage mechanism. He returned to the academy and, while on a research trip to London. After his return to the States, he accepted a position with the CIA. He rose rapidly through the ranks in a variety of operations against the USSR. As DDI, he had political battles that led to him becoming President of the United States, Ryan had his background established in Patriot Games and Red Rabbit. He was born in 1950, the son of Emmet William Ryan, a Baltimore Police Department homicide lieutenant, the elder Ryan had served with the U. S. Armys 101st Airborne Division at the Battle of the Bulge. His mother, Catherine Burke Ryan, was a nurse, without Remorse mentioned that he had a sister, who lived in Seattle. S. While waiting for the Corps to assign him, he passed the Certified Public Accountant exam, after officer training at Marine Corps Base Quantico, he went on to serve as a platoon commander. The crash badly injured Ryans back, U. S. Navy surgeons, at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, inadequately repaired his back. This led to a recovery process after which, complete with a permanent disability and wearing a back brace. He passed his stockbrokers exam and took a position with Wall Street investment firm Merrill Lynchs Baltimore office and his parents died in a plane crash at Chicago Midway International Airport,19 months after his crash in Crete. He developed a fear of flying that persisted for years, the film version of The Hunt for Red October changed his education background to being a 1972 graduate of the US Naval Academy. Ryans story starts in Patriot Games and continues in Red Rabbit and he did so well that one of Merrill Lynchs senior vice presidents, Joe Muller, came to Baltimore to have dinner with him, with the objective of inviting him to the firms New York City headquarters. Also present is Mullers daughter Caroline, nicknamed Cathy, then a medical student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. They immediately fall in love and get engaged, one night, while having dinner with his fiancée, Ryan throws out his back

11.
The Sum of All Fears (film)
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The Sum of All Fears is a 2002 American spy thriller film directed by Phil Alden Robinson, based on Tom Clancys novel of the same name. The film, which is set in the Jack Ryan film series, is a reboot taking place in 2002. The film is about a plot by an Austrian Neo-Nazi to trigger a war between the United States and Russia, so that he can establish a fascist superstate in Europe. CIA analyst Jack Ryan is the person who realizes that the Baltimore bomb was a black market weapon. With the clock ticking, Ryan has to find a way to stop the nuclear war. The film was a co-production between the motion picture studios of Paramount Pictures, Mace Neufeld Productions, MFP Munich Film Partners, on June 4,2002, the original motion picture soundtrack was released by the Elektra Records music label. The soundtrack was composed and orchestrated by musician Jerry Goldsmith, the Sum of All Fears premiered in theaters in the United States on May 31,2002, grossing $118,907,036 in box office revenue. Its worldwide theatrical run ended with a total of $193,921,372 in business, considering its production budget of $68 million and related marketing costs, the film was considered a major financial success. Despite this, the film received mixed reviews from critics. He sells it to a South African black market arms trafficker named Olson and he then sells it to a far-right group led by Austrian billionaire and neo-Nazi Richard Dressler. Dresslers aim is to start a war between the United States and Russia that will devastate them both, and leave a united Fascist Europe to rule the world. CIA analyst Jack Ryan is summoned by CIA Director William Cabot to accompany him to Russia to meet President Nemerov, Cabot sends operative John Clark to Russia to investigate. Ryan and his colleagues discern that a crate from the facility in Ukraine was flown to the Canary Islands, Ryan warns Cabot, who is attending a football game in Baltimore with the President, about a bomb threat. The President is evacuated before the bomb detonates, but the city is destroyed, to escalate the situation, a corrupt Russian Air Force general who has been paid by Dressler sends Tu-22M Backfires to attack a U. S. aircraft carrier in the North Sea. In Syria, Clark tracks down Ghazi, one of the men who found the bomb and he tells Clark that he sold the bomb to Olson, who lives in Damascus. Ryans colleagues at Langley infiltrate Olsons computer and download files that implicate Dressler as the person who bought the plutonium, Nemerov agrees to do so as President Fowler follows suit. The participants in the conspiracy, including Dressler, are assassinated, presidents Fowler and Nemerov announce new measures to counter nuclear proliferation in joint speeches at the White House, as Ryan and his fiancee Dr. Catherine Muller listen in. During this time, writer Akiva Goldsman wrote multiple drafts of the script, however, on June 8,2000, it was announced that Ford dropped out of the film after he and director Phillip Noyce were unable to work out script problems

12.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states

13.
Nuclear warfare
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Nuclear warfare is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is used to inflict damage on the enemy. In contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can produce destruction in a much shorter time-frame, some activists had claimed in the 1980s that with this potential nuclear winter side-effect of a nuclear war, almost every human on Earth could starve to death. So far, two nuclear weapons have been used in the course of warfare, both by the United States near the end of World War II, on August 6,1945, a uranium gun-type device was detonated over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, on August 9, a plutonium device was detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki. These two bombings resulted in the deaths of approximately 120,000 people, in 1974, India, and in 1998, Pakistan, two countries that were openly hostile toward each other, developed nuclear weapons. Israel and North Korea are also thought to have developed stocks of nuclear weapons, the Israeli government has never admitted to having nuclear weapons, although it is known to have constructed the reactor and reprocessing plant necessary for building nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons have been detonated on over 2,000 occasions for testing purposes, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the resultant end of the Cold War, the threat of a major nuclear war between the two nuclear superpowers was generally thought to have declined. Since then, concern over nuclear weapons has shifted to the prevention of localized nuclear conflicts resulting from nuclear proliferation, the possibility of using nuclear weapons in war is usually divided into two subgroups, each with different effects and potentially fought with different types of nuclear armaments. The first, a nuclear war, refers to a small-scale use of nuclear weapons by two belligerents. This term could apply to any use of nuclear weapons that may involve military or civilian targets. The second, a nuclear war, could consist of large numbers of nuclear weapons used in an attack aimed at an entire country, including military, economic. Such an attack would almost certainly destroy the economic, social, and military infrastructure of the target nation. Some Cold War strategists such as Henry Kissinger argued that a nuclear war could be possible between two heavily armed superpowers. Some predict, however, that a war could potentially escalate into a full-scale nuclear war. Even the most optimistic predictions of the effects of a nuclear exchange foresee the death of many millions of victims within a very short period of time. However, such predictions, assuming total war with nuclear arsenals at Cold War highs, have not been without criticism. The authors of the study estimated that as much as five tons of soot could be released, producing a cooling of several degrees over large areas of North America. The cooling would last for years and could be catastrophic, according to the researchers, either a limited or full-scale nuclear exchange could occur during an accidental nuclear war, in which the use of nuclear weapons is triggered unintentionally

14.
Winston Churchill
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Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill KG OM CH TD PC DL FRS RA was a British statesman who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his overall, in 1963, he was the first of only eight people to be made an honorary citizen of the United States. Churchill was born into the family of the Dukes of Marlborough and his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was a charismatic politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, his mother, Jennie Jerome, was an American socialite. As a young officer, he saw action in British India, the Anglo–Sudan War. He gained fame as a war correspondent and wrote books about his campaigns, at the forefront of politics for fifty years, he held many political and cabinet positions. Before the First World War, he served as President of the Board of Trade, Home Secretary, during the war, he continued as First Lord of the Admiralty until the disastrous Gallipoli Campaign caused his departure from government. He then briefly resumed active service on the Western Front as commander of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. He returned to government under Lloyd George as Minister of Munitions, Secretary of State for War, Secretary of State for Air, at the outbreak of the Second World War, he was again appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. Following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain on 10 May 1940, Churchill became Prime Minister and he led Britain as Prime Minister until victory over Nazi Germany had been secured. After the Conservative Party suffered a defeat in the 1945 general election. He publicly warned of an Iron Curtain of Soviet influence in Europe, after winning the 1951 election, Churchill again became Prime Minister. His second term was preoccupied by foreign affairs, including the Malayan Emergency, Mau Mau Uprising, Korean War, domestically his government laid great emphasis on house-building. Churchill suffered a stroke in 1953 and retired as Prime Minister in 1955. Upon his death aged ninety in 1965, Elizabeth II granted him the honour of a state funeral and his highly complex legacy continues to stimulate intense debate amongst writers and historians. Born into the family of the Dukes of Marlborough, a branch of the noble Spencer family, Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, like his father. His ancestor George Spencer had changed his surname to Spencer-Churchill in 1817 when he became Duke of Marlborough, to highlight his descent from John Churchill, Churchill was born on 30 November 1874, two months prematurely, in a bedroom in Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire. From age two to six, he lived in Dublin, where his grandfather had been appointed Viceroy, Churchills brother, John Strange Spencer-Churchill, was born during this time in Ireland

15.
Epigraph (literature)
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In literature, an epigraph is a phrase, quotation, or poem that is set at the beginning of a document or component. The epigraph may serve as a preface, as a summary, as a counter-example, or to link the work to a literary canon. The long quotation from Dantes Inferno that prefaces T. S. Eliots The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is part of a speech by one of the damned in Dantes Hell. Linking it to the monologue which forms Eliots poem adds a comment, the epigraph to Eliots Gerontion is a quotation from Shakespeares Measure for Measure. Eliots The Hollow Men uses the line Mistah Kurtz, he dead from Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness as one of its two epigraphs, the epigraph to Theodore Herzls Altneuland is If you will it, it is no dream. Which became a slogan of the Zionist movement, the epigraph to Fyodor Dostoyevskys The Brothers Karamazov is John 12,24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. The epigraphs to the preamble of Georges Perecs Life, A Users Manual and to the book as a whole warn the reader that tricks are going to be played and that all will not be what it seems. Jack London uses the first stanza of John Myers OHaras poem Atavism as the epigraph to The Call of the Wild, as an epigraph to The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway famously quotes Gertrude Stein, You are all a lost generation. The epigraph to E. L. Doctorows Ragtime quotes Scott Joplins instructions to those who play his music and it is never right to play Ragtime fast. This stands in contrast to the pace of American society at the turn of the 20th century. A Samuel Johnson quote is used as an epigraph in Hunter S. Thompsons novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, stephen King uses many epigraphs in his writing, usually to mark the beginning of another section in the novel. An unusual example is The Stand where he uses lyrics from songs to express the metaphor used in a particular part. J. K. Rowlings novels frequently begin with epigraphs relating to the themes explored, Harry Potter, some authors use fictional quotations that purport to be related to the fiction of the work itself. Examples include, John Greens The Fault in Our Stars has a quotation from a novel, An Imperial Affliction. F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby opens with a poem entitled Then Wear the Gold Hat, DInvilliers is a character in Fitzgeralds first novel, This Side of Paradise. This cliché is parodied by Diana Wynne Jones in The Tough Guide To Fantasyland, a poem at the beginning of J. R. R. Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings describes the Rings of Power, the central plot device of the trilogy. Fantasy literature may also include epigraphs, le Guins Earthsea series includes epigraphs supposedly quoted from the epic poetry of the Earthsea archipelago

16.
Yom Kippur War
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The fighting mostly took place in the Sinai and the Golan Heights, territories that had been occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat wanted also to reopen the Suez Canal, neither specifically planned to destroy Israel, although the Israeli leaders could not be sure of that. Egyptian and Syrian forces crossed ceasefire lines to enter the Sinai Peninsula, both the United States and the Soviet Union initiated massive resupply efforts to their respective allies during the war, and this led to a near-confrontation between the two nuclear superpowers. The war began with a massive and successful Egyptian crossing of the Suez Canal, after crossing the cease-fire lines, Egyptian forces advanced virtually unopposed into the Sinai Peninsula. After three days, Israel had mobilized most of its forces and halted the Egyptian offensive, resulting in a military stalemate, the Syrians coordinated their attack on the Golan Heights to coincide with the Egyptian offensive and initially made threatening gains into Israeli-held territory. Within three days, however, Israeli forces had pushed the Syrians back to the ceasefire lines. The Israel Defense Forces then launched a four-day counter-offensive deep into Syria, within a week, Israeli artillery began to shell the outskirts of Damascus. He therefore ordered the Egyptians to go back on the offensive, on October 22 a United Nations–brokered ceasefire quickly unraveled, with each side blaming the other for the breach. By October 24, the Israelis had improved their positions considerably and completed their encirclement of Egypts Third Army and this development led to tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. As a result, a ceasefire was imposed cooperatively on October 25 to end the war. These changes paved the way for the subsequent peace process, the 1978 Camp David Accords that followed led to the return of the Sinai to Egypt and normalized relations—the first peaceful recognition of Israel by an Arab country. Egypt continued its drift away from the Soviet Union and left the Soviet sphere of influence entirely, the war was part of the Arab–Israeli conflict, an ongoing dispute that included many battles and wars since 1948, when the state of Israel was formed. During the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel had captured Egypts Sinai Peninsula, roughly half of Syrias Golan Heights, and the territories of the West Bank which had been held by Jordan since 1948. On June 19,1967, shortly after the Six-Day War, the Israeli government voted to return the Sinai to Egypt, the Arab position, as it emerged in September 1967 at the Khartoum Arab Summit, was to reject any peaceful settlement with the state of Israel. Prior to that, King Hussein of Jordan had stated that he could not rule out a possibility of a real, permanent peace between Israel and the Arab states. Armed hostilities continued on a limited scale after the Six-Day War and escalated into the War of Attrition, a ceasefire was signed in August 1970. President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt died in September 1970 and he was succeeded by Anwar Sadat. A peace initiative led by both Sadat and UN intermediary Gunnar Jarring was tabled in 1971 and it resembled a proposal independently made by Moshe Dayan

17.
Israel Defense Forces
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The Israel Defense Forces, commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal, are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the forces, air force, and navy. It is the military wing of the Israeli security forces. The IDF is headed by its Chief of General Staff, the Ramatkal, subordinate to the Defense Minister of Israel, Lieutenant general Gadi Eizenkot has served as Chief of Staff since 2015. The number of wars and border conflicts in which the IDF has been involved in its history makes it one of the most battle-trained armed forces in the world. The Israel Defense Forces differs from most armed forces in the world in many ways, differences include the mandatory conscription of women and its structure, which emphasizes close relations between the army, navy, and air force. Since its founding, the IDF has been designed to match Israels unique security situation. The IDF is one of Israeli societys most prominent institutions, influencing the economy, culture. In 1965, the Israel Defense Forces was awarded the Israel Prize for its contribution to education, the Uzi submachine gun was invented in Israel and used by the IDF until December 2003, ending a service that began in 1954. The Israeli cabinet ratified the name Israel Defense Forces, Tzva HaHagana LeYisrael, literally army for the defense of Israel, the other main contender was Tzva Yisrael. The name was chosen because it conveyed the idea that the role was defense, and because it incorporated the name Haganah. Among the primary opponents of the name were Minister Haim-Moshe Shapira, the IDF traces its roots to Jewish paramilitary organizations in the New Yishuv, starting with the Second Aliyah. The first such organization was Bar-Giora, founded in September 1907 and it was converted to Hashomer in April 1909, which operated until the British Mandate of Palestine came into being in 1920. Hashomer was an elitist organization with narrow scope, and was created to protect against criminal gangs seeking to steal property. During World War I, the forerunners of the Haganah/IDF were the Zion Mule Corps, after the Arab riots against Jews in April 1920, the Yishuvs leadership saw the need to create a nationwide underground defense organization, and the Haganah was founded in June of the same year. The Haganah became a defense force after the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine with an organized structure. During World War II the successor to the Jewish Legion of World War I was the Jewish Brigade, the IDF was founded following the establishment of the State of Israel, after Defense Minister and Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion issued an order on 26 May 1948. The order called for the establishment of the Israel Defense Forces, although Ben-Gurion had no legal authority to issue such an order, the order was made legal by the cabinet on 31 May

18.
Tactical nuclear weapon
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Tactical nuclear weapons were a large part of the peak nuclear weapons stockpile levels during the Cold War. Tactical nuclear weapons include gravity bombs, short-range missiles, artillery shells, land mines, depth charges, also in this category are nuclear armed ground-based or shipborne surface-to-air missiles and air-to-air missiles. In wartime, such explosives could be used for demolishing choke-points to enemy offensives, such as at tunnels, narrow mountain passes, there is no precise definition of the tactical category, neither considering range nor yield of the nuclear weapon. Modern tactical nuclear warheads have yields up to the tens of kilotons, or potentially hundreds, several times that of the used in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima. Use of tactical nuclear weapons against similarly-armed opponents carries a significant danger of escalating the conflict beyond anticipated boundaries. For example, firing a nuclear artillery shell similar to the W48 at the enemy invites retaliation. It may provoke the enemy into responding with several artillery shells similar to the W79. By using tactical nuclear weapons there is a risk of escalating the conflict until it reaches a tipping point which provokes the use of strategic nuclear weapons such as ICBMs. Additionally, the nuclear weapons most likely to be used first have usually been under less stringent political control at times of military combat crises than strategic weapons. Early Permissive Action Links could be as simple as a combination lock. For these reasons, stockpiles of nuclear warheads in most countries arsenals have been dramatically reduced c. 2010, and the smallest types have been completely eliminated, some variable yield nuclear warheads such as the B61 nuclear bomb have been produced in both tactical and strategic versions. This concept was formalized when Putin took power in Russia in the following year, ten NATO member countries have advanced a confidence-building plan for NATO and Russia that could lead to treaties to reduce the tactical nuclear weapons in Europe

19.
Mark 12 nuclear bomb
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The Mark-12 nuclear bomb was a lightweight nuclear bomb designed and manufactured by the United States of America which was built starting in 1954 and which saw service from then until 1962. The Mark-12 was notable for being smaller in both size and weight compared to prior implosion-type nuclear weapons. There was a planned W-12 warhead variant which would have used with the RIM-8 Talos missile. The complete Mark-12 bomb was 22 inches in diameter,155 inches long and it had a yield of 12 to 14 kilotonnes of TNT. The Mark-12 has been speculated to have been the first deployed nuclear weapon to have used beryllium as a reflector-tamper inside the implosion assembly and it is believed to have used a spherical implosion assembly, levitated pit, and 92-point detonation. Nuclear weapon design Mark 7 nuclear bomb The Sum of All Fears The Sum of All Fears allbombs. html list at nuclearweaponarchive. org Historical nuclear bombs list at globalsecurity. org

20.
Douglas A-4 Skyhawk
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The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a single seat subsonic carrier-capable attack aircraft developed for the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps in the early 1950s. The delta winged, single turbojet engined Skyhawk was designed and produced by Douglas Aircraft Company and it was originally designated A4D under the U. S. Navys pre-1962 designation system. The Skyhawk is a lightweight aircraft with a maximum takeoff weight of 24,500 pounds and has a top speed of more than 670 miles per hour. The aircrafts five hardpoints support a variety of missiles, bombs, the A-4 was originally powered by the Wright J65 turbojet engine, from the A-4E onwards, the Pratt & Whitney J52 was used. Skyhawks played key roles in the Vietnam War, the Yom Kippur War, the Skyhawk was designed by Douglas Aircrafts Ed Heinemann in response to a U. S. Navy call for a jet-powered attack aircraft to replace the older Douglas AD Skyraider. Heinemann opted for a design that would minimize its size, weight, the result was an aircraft that weighed only half of the Navys weight specification. It had a wing so compact that it did not need to be folded for carrier stowage, the diminutive Skyhawk soon received the nicknames Scooter, Kiddiecar, Bantam Bomber, Tinker Toy Bomber, and, on account of its nimble performance, Heinemanns Hot-Rod. The tail is of cruciform design, with the horizontal stabilizer mounted above the fuselage, the choice of a delta wing combined speed and maneuverability with a large fuel capacity and small overall size, thus not requiring folding wings, albeit at the expense of cruising efficiency. The leading edge slats were designed to drop automatically at the speed by gravity and air pressure, saving weight and space by omitting actuation motors. The wing structure itself could be lighter with the overall strength. The turbojet engine was accessed for service or replacement by removing the aft section of the fuselage and this obviated the need for access doors with their hinges and latches, further reducing aircraft weight and complexity. The A-4 pioneered the concept of buddy air-to-air refueling and this allows the aircraft to supply others of the same type, eliminating the need for dedicated tanker aircraft—a particular advantage for small air arms or when operating in remote locations. A designated supply A-4 would mount a center-mounted buddy store, an external fuel tank with a hose reel in the aft section. This aircraft was fueled up without armament and launched first, Attack aircraft would be armed to the maximum and given as much fuel as was allowable by maximum takeoff weight limits, far less than a full tank. Once airborne, they would proceed to top off their fuel tanks from the tanker using the A-4s fixed refueling probe on the starboard side of the aircraft nose. They could then sortie with both full armament and fuel loads, while the capability of the A-4 was rarely used in U. S. service after the KA-3 Skywarrior became available as a tanker from the larger deck carriers. The versatility of the capability and the retirement of the Skywarrior meant that the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet now includes this capability. The A-4 was also designed to be able to make a landing, in the event of a hydraulic failure

21.
Syria
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Syrias capital and largest city is Damascus. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Sunni Arabs make up the largest religious group in Syria. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, in the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a number of military coups. In 1958, Syria entered a union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000. Mainstream modern academic opinion strongly favours the argument that the Greek word is related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, in the past, others believed that it was derived from Siryon, the name that the Sidonians gave to Mount Hermon. However, the discovery of the inscription in 2000 seems to support the theory that the term Syria derives from Assyria. The area designated by the word has changed over time, since approximately 10,000 BC, Syria was one of centers of Neolithic culture where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. The following Neolithic period is represented by houses of Mureybet culture. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gyps, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations. Cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic, archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria was one of the most ancient on earth, perhaps preceded by only those of Mesopotamia. The earliest recorded indigenous civilisation in the region was the Kingdom of Ebla near present-day Idlib, gifts from Pharaohs, found during excavations, confirm Eblas contact with Egypt. One of the earliest written texts from Syria is an agreement between Vizier Ibrium of Ebla and an ambiguous kingdom called Abarsal c.2300 BC. The Northwest Semitic language of the Amorites is the earliest attested of the Canaanite languages, Mari reemerged during this period, and saw renewed prosperity until conquered by Hammurabi of Babylon. Ugarit also arose during this time, circa 1800 BC, close to modern Latakia, Ugaritic was a Semitic language loosely related to the Canaanite languages, and developed the Ugaritic alphabet. The Ugarites kingdom survived until its destruction at the hands of the marauding Indo-European Sea Peoples in the 12th century BC, Yamhad was described in the tablets of Mari as the mightiest state in the near east and as having more vassals than Hammurabi of Babylon. Yamhad imposed its authority over Alalakh, Qatna, the Hurrians states, the army of Yamhad campaigned as far away as Dēr on the border of Elam

22.
Druze
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The Druze are an esoteric ethnoreligious group originating in Western Asia who self-identify as unitarians. Jethro of Midian is considered an ancestor of all Mandaeans and Mahra from Druze Mountain, the Druze faith is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion based on the teachings of Hamza ibn-Ali, al-Hakim, Plato, Aristotle, Socrates and Akhenaten. The Epistles of Wisdom is the text of the Druze faith. The Druze follow theophany, and believe in reincarnation or the transmigration of the soul, at the end of the cycle of rebirth, which is achieved through successive reincarnations, the soul is united with the Cosmic Mind. Although dwarfed by other, larger communities, the Druze community played an important role in shaping the history of the Levant, even though the faith originally developed out of Ismaili Islam, Druze are not considered Muslims. Fatimid Caliph Ali az-Zahir, whose father al-Hakim is a key figure in the Druze faith, was harsh, causing the death of many Druze in Antioch, Aleppo. Persecution flared up during the rule of the Mamluks and Ottomans, most recently, Druze were targeted by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and Al-Qaeda in order to cleanse Syria and neighboring countries of non-Islamic influence. The Druze faith is one of the religious groups in the Levant. They are found primarily in Syria, Lebanon and Israel, with communities in Jordan. The oldest and most densely-populated Druze communities exist in Mount Lebanon, the Druze people reside primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. The Institute of Druze Studies estimates that forty to fifty percent of Druze live in Syria, thirty to forty percent in Lebanon, six to seven percent in Israel, about two percent of the Druze population are also scattered within other countries in the Middle East. Large communities of Druze also live outside the Middle East, in Australia, Canada, Europe, Latin America, the United States and they use the Arabic language and follow a social pattern very similar to those of the other peoples of the Levant. The number of Druze people worldwide is between 800,000 and one million, with the vast majority residing in the Levant, the name Druze is derived from the name of Muhammad bin Ismail Nashtakin ad-Darazī who was an early preacher. Although the Druze consider ad-Darazī a heretic, the name has been used to identify them, before becoming public, the movement was secretive and held closed meetings in what was known as Sessions of Wisdom. In 1016 ad-Darazi and his followers openly proclaimed their beliefs and called people to them, causing riots in Cairo against the Unitarian movement including Hamza bin Ali. This led to the suspension of the movement for one year, although the Druze religious books describe ad-Darazi as the insolent one and as the calf who is narrow-minded and hasty, the name Druze is still used for identification and for historical reasons. In 1018 ad-Darazi was assassinated for his teachings, some claim that he was executed by Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah. Some authorities see in the name Druze a descriptive epithet, derived from Arabic dāresah, others have speculated that the word comes from the Persian word Darazo or from Shaykh Hussayn ad-Darazī, who was one of the early converts to the faith

23.
Palestinians
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Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one half of the worlds Palestinian population continues to reside in historic Palestine, the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Israel. Of the Palestinian population who live abroad, known as the Palestinian diaspora, the history of a distinct Palestinian national identity is a disputed issue amongst scholars. Palestinian was used to refer to the nationalist concept of a Palestinian people by Palestinian Arabs in a limited way until World War I, Modern Palestinian identity now encompasses the heritage of all ages from biblical times up to the Ottoman period. Founded in 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization is an organization for groups that represent the Palestinian people before the international community. Since 1978, the United Nations has observed an annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, herodotus also employs the term as an ethnonym, as when he speaks of the Syrians of Palestine or Palestinian-Syrians, an ethnically amorphous group he distinguishes from the Phoenicians. Herodotus makes no distinction between the Jews and other inhabitants of Palestine, the Greek word reflects an ancient Eastern Mediterranean-Near Eastern word which was used either as a toponym or ethnonym. In Ancient Egyptian Peleset/Purusati has been conjectured to refer to the Sea Peoples, among Semitic languages, Akkadian Palaštu is used of Philistia and its 4 city states. Biblical Hebrews cognate word Plištim, is usually translated Philistines, the Arabic word Filastin has been used to refer to the region since the time of the earliest medieval Arab geographers. It appears to have used as an Arabic adjectival noun in the region since as early as the 7th century CE. The Arabic newspaper Falasteen, published in Jaffa by Issa and Yusef al-Issa, the first Zionist bank, the Jewish Colonial Trust, was founded at the Second Zionist Congress and incorporated in London in 1899. The JCT was intended to be the instrument of the Zionist Organization. On 27 February 1902, a subsidiary of this Trust called the Anglo-Palestine Company was established in London with the assistance of Zalman David Levontin and this Company was to become the future Bank Leumi. Following the 1948 establishment of Israel, the use and application of the terms Palestine and Palestinian by, for example, the English-language newspaper The Palestine Post, founded by Jews in 1932, changed its name in 1950 to The Jerusalem Post. Jews in Israel and the West Bank today generally identify as Israelis, Arab citizens of Israel identify themselves as Israeli and/or Palestinian and/or Arab. Anyone born, after that date, of a Palestinian father – whether in Palestine or outside it – is also a Palestinian. Thus, the Jews of Palestine were/are also included, although limited only to the Jews who had resided in Palestine until the beginning of the Zionist invasion. The Charter also states that Palestine with the boundaries it had during the British Mandate, is a territorial unit. The although the timing and causes behind the emergence of a distinctively Palestinian national consciousness among the Arabs of Palestine are matters of scholarly disagreement

24.
Israel
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Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Middle East, on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. The country contains geographically diverse features within its small area. Israels economy and technology center is Tel Aviv, while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, in 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, next year, the Jewish Agency declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied territories including the West Bank, Golan Heights and it extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Israels occupation of the Palestinian territories is the worlds longest military occupation in modern times, efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed, the population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2017 to be 8,671,100 people. It is the worlds only Jewish-majority state, with 74. 8% being designated as Jewish, the countrys second largest group of citizens are Arabs, at 20. 8%. The great majority of Israeli Arabs are Sunni Muslims, including significant numbers of semi-settled Negev Bedouins, other minorities include Arameans, Armenians, Assyrians, Black Hebrew Israelites, Circassians, Maronites and Samaritans. Israel also hosts a significant population of foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia, including illegal migrants from Sudan, Eritrea. In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish, Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage. The prime minister is head of government and the Knesset is the legislature, Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2016. The country benefits from a skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. The country has the highest standard of living in the Middle East and the third highest in Asia, in the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term Israeli to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett. The names Land of Israel and Children of Israel have historically used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel. The name Israel in these phrases refers to the patriarch Jacob who, jacobs twelve sons became the ancestors of the Israelites, also known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Children of Israel. The earliest known artifact to mention the word Israel as a collective is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt. The area is known as the Holy Land, being holy for all Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam

25.
Jack Ryan (Tom Clancy)
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Dr John Patrick Jack Ryan, Sr. KCVO, Ph. D. is a fictional character created by Tom Clancy who appears in many of his novels and their respective film adaptations. Jack Ryan was born in Baltimore in 1950 and grew up there and he earned an NROTC commission in the Marines at Boston College. Medically discharged at the rank of 2ndLt following a helicopter crash and he met and married Caroline Cathy Mueller, a medical student and later an ophthalmic surgeon, with whom he had four children. He returned to academia, eventually accepting a position at the U. S. Naval Academy and he was later recommended to the CIA, eventually spending a short period there writing a position paper, as well as developing a counter-espionage mechanism. He returned to the academy and, while on a research trip to London. After his return to the States, he accepted a position with the CIA. He rose rapidly through the ranks in a variety of operations against the USSR. As DDI, he had political battles that led to him becoming President of the United States, Ryan had his background established in Patriot Games and Red Rabbit. He was born in 1950, the son of Emmet William Ryan, a Baltimore Police Department homicide lieutenant, the elder Ryan had served with the U. S. Armys 101st Airborne Division at the Battle of the Bulge. His mother, Catherine Burke Ryan, was a nurse, without Remorse mentioned that he had a sister, who lived in Seattle. S. While waiting for the Corps to assign him, he passed the Certified Public Accountant exam, after officer training at Marine Corps Base Quantico, he went on to serve as a platoon commander. The crash badly injured Ryans back, U. S. Navy surgeons, at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, inadequately repaired his back. This led to a recovery process after which, complete with a permanent disability and wearing a back brace. He passed his stockbrokers exam and took a position with Wall Street investment firm Merrill Lynchs Baltimore office and his parents died in a plane crash at Chicago Midway International Airport,19 months after his crash in Crete. He developed a fear of flying that persisted for years, the film version of The Hunt for Red October changed his education background to being a 1972 graduate of the US Naval Academy. Ryans story starts in Patriot Games and continues in Red Rabbit and he did so well that one of Merrill Lynchs senior vice presidents, Joe Muller, came to Baltimore to have dinner with him, with the objective of inviting him to the firms New York City headquarters. Also present is Mullers daughter Caroline, nicknamed Cathy, then a medical student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. They immediately fall in love and get engaged, one night, while having dinner with his fiancée, Ryan throws out his back

26.
Jerusalem
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Jerusalem is a city located on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is considered a city in the three major Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, the part of Jerusalem called the City of David was settled in the 4th millennium BCE. In 1538, walls were built around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent, today those walls define the Old City, which has been traditionally divided into four quarters—known since the early 19th century as the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Quarters. The Old City became a World Heritage Site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger, Modern Jerusalem has grown far beyond the Old Citys boundaries. These foundational events, straddling the dawn of the 1st millennium BCE, the sobriquet of holy city was probably attached to Jerusalem in post-exilic times. The holiness of Jerusalem in Christianity, conserved in the Septuagint which Christians adopted as their own authority, was reinforced by the New Testament account of Jesuss crucifixion there, in Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina. As a result, despite having an area of only 0, outside the Old City stands the Garden Tomb. Today, the status of Jerusalem remains one of the issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, West Jerusalem was among the captured and later annexed by Israel while East Jerusalem, including the Old City, was captured. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War and subsequently annexed it into Jerusalem, one of Israels Basic Laws, the 1980 Jerusalem Law, refers to Jerusalem as the countrys undivided capital. All branches of the Israeli government are located in Jerusalem, including the Knesset, the residences of the Prime Minister and President, the international community does not recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital, and the city hosts no foreign embassies. Jerusalem is also home to some non-governmental Israeli institutions of importance, such as the Hebrew University. In 2011, Jerusalem had a population of 801,000, of which Jews comprised 497,000, Muslims 281,000, a city called Rušalim in the Execration texts of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt is widely, but not universally, identified as Jerusalem. Jerusalem is called Urušalim in the Amarna letters of Abdi-Heba, the name Jerusalem is variously etymologized to mean foundation of the god Shalem, the god Shalem was thus the original tutelary deity of the Bronze Age city. The form Yerushalem or Yerushalayim first appears in the Bible, in the Book of Joshua, according to a Midrash, the name is a combination of Yhwh Yireh and the town Shalem. The earliest extra-biblical Hebrew writing of the word Jerusalem is dated to the sixth or seventh century BCE and was discovered in Khirbet Beit Lei near Beit Guvrin in 1961. The inscription states, I am Yahweh thy God, I will accept the cities of Judah and I will redeem Jerusalem, or as other scholars suggest, the mountains of Judah belong to him, to the God of Jerusalem

27.
Holy See
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The Holy See, also referred to as the See of Rome, is the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, the episcopal see of the Pope, and an independent sovereign entity. It serves as the point of reference for the Catholic Church everywhere. Today, it is responsible for the governance of all Catholics, organised in their Particular Churches, Patriarchates, as an independent sovereign entity, holding the Vatican City enclave in Rome as sovereign territory, it maintains diplomatic relations with other states. Diplomatically, the Holy See acts and speaks for the whole church and it is also recognised by other subjects of international law as a sovereign entity, headed by the Pope, with which diplomatic relations can be maintained. The creation of the Vatican City state was meant to ensure the diplomatic, in Greek, the adjective holy or sacred is constantly applied to all such sees as a matter of course. The word see comes from the Latin word sedes, meaning seat, while Saint Peters basilica in Vatican City is perhaps the church most associated with the Papacy, the actual cathedral of the Holy See is the church of Saint John Lateran within the city of Rome. The Pope governs the Catholic Church through the Roman Curia, the Secretariat of State, under the Cardinal Secretary of State, directs and coordinates the Curia. The incumbent, Archbishop Pietro Parolin, is the Sees equivalent of a prime minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Secretary of the Section for Relations with States of the Secretariat of State, acts as the Holy Sees minister of foreign affairs. Parolin was named in his role by Pope Francis On 31 August 2013, mamberti was named in his role by Pope Benedict XVI in September 2006. The Secretariat of State is the body of the Curia that is situated within Vatican City. The others are in buildings in different parts of Rome that have rights similar to those of embassies. The Roman Rota handles normal judicial appeals, the most numerous being those that concern alleged nullity of marriage and it also oversees the work of other ecclesiastical tribunals at all levels. The most important of these is the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, the Prefecture of the Papal Household is responsible for the organization of the papal household, audiences, and ceremonies. The Holy See does not dissolve upon a Popes death or resignation and it instead operates under a different set of laws sede vacante. The government of the See, and therefore of the Catholic Church, canon law prohibits the College and the Camerlengo from introducing any innovations or novelties in the government of the Church during this period. In 2001, the Holy See had a revenue of 422.098 billion Italian lire, the Guardian newspaper described Mennini and his role in the following manner. Paolo Mennini, who is in effect the popes merchant banker, Mennini heads a special unit inside the Vatican called the extraordinary division of APSA – Amministrazione del Patrimonio della Sede Apostolica – which handles the patrimony of the Holy See. The Holy See has been recognized, both in practice and in the writing of modern legal scholars, as a subject of public international law, with rights

28.
Muslim
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A Muslim is someone who follows or practices Islam, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion. Muslims consider the Quran, their book, to be the verbatim word of God as revealed to the Islamic prophet. They also follow the teachings and practices of Muhammad as recorded in traditional accounts, Muslim is an Arabic word meaning one who submits. Most Muslims will accept anyone who has publicly pronounced Shahadah as a Muslim, the shahadah states, There is no god but the God and Muhammad is the last messenger of the God. The testimony authorized by God in the Quran that can found in Surah 3,18 states, There is no god except God, which in Arabic, is the exact testimony which God Himself utters, as well as the angels and those who possess knowledge utter. The word muslim is the active participle of the verb of which islām is a verbal noun, based on the triliteral S-L-M to be whole. A female adherent is a muslima, the plural form in Arabic is muslimūn or muslimīn, and its feminine equivalent is muslimāt. The Arabic form muslimun is the stem IV participle of the triliteral S-L-M, the ordinary word in English is Muslim. It is sometimes transliterated as Moslem, which is an older spelling, the word Mosalman is a common equivalent for Muslim used in Central Asia. Until at least the mid-1960s, many English-language writers used the term Mohammedans or Mahometans, although such terms were not necessarily intended to be pejorative, Muslims argue that the terms are offensive because they allegedly imply that Muslims worship Muhammad rather than God. Other obsolete terms include Muslimite and Muslimist, musulmán/Mosalmán is a synonym for Muslim and is modified from Arabic. In English it was sometimes spelled Mussulman and has become archaic in usage, the Muslim philosopher Ibn Arabi said, A Muslim is a person who has dedicated his worship exclusively to God. Islam means making ones religion and faith Gods alone. The Quran states that men were Muslims because they submitted to God, preached His message and upheld His values. Thus, in Surah 3,52 of the Quran, Jesus disciples tell him, We believe in God, and you be our witness that we are Muslims. In Muslim belief, before the Quran, God had given the Tawrat to Moses, the Zabur to David and the Injil to Jesus, who are all considered important Muslim prophets. The most populous Muslim-majority country is Indonesia, home to 12. 7% of the worlds Muslims, followed by Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Egypt. About 20% of the worlds Muslims lives in the Middle East and North Africa, Sizable minorities are found in India, China, Russia, Ethiopia. The country with the highest proportion of self-described Muslims as a proportion of its population is Morocco

29.
Swiss Guards
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See Pontifical Swiss Guard for the Swiss Guard stationed at the Vatican. Swiss Guards are the Swiss soldiers who have served as guards at foreign European courts since the late 15th century, Foreign military service was outlawed by the revised Swiss Constitution of 1874, with the only exception being the Pontifical Swiss Guard stationed at the Vatican. The modern Papal Swiss Guard serves as both a unit and a bodyguard. Established in 1506, it is one of the oldest military units in the world, the earliest Swiss guard unit to be established on a permanent basis was the Hundred Swiss, which served at the French court from 1490 to 1817. This small force was complemented in 1567 by a Swiss Guards regiment, in the 18th and early 19th centuries several other Swiss Guard units existed for periods in various European courts. In addition to household and palace units, Swiss mercenary regiments have served as regular line troops in various armies, notably those of France, Spain. They were considered the most effective mercenaries of the 15th century, at the Battle of Marignano, the Landsknecht in French service defeated the Swiss pikemen. In addition the Gardes Suisses served in the field as a regiment in times of war. King Francis I of France used some 120,000 Swiss mercenaries in the Italian Wars, the Hundred Swiss were created in 1480 when Louis XI retained a Swiss company for his personal guard. By 1496 they comprised one hundred guardsmen plus about twenty-seven officers and their main role was the protection of the King within the palace as the garde du dedans du Louvre, but in the earlier part of their history they accompanied the King to war. In the Battle of Pavia the Hundred Swiss of King Francis I were slain before Francis was captured by the Spanish, the Hundred Swiss shared the indoor guard with the Kings Bodyguards, who were Frenchmen. The Hundred Swiss were armed with halberds, the blade of which carried the Royal arms in gold and their ceremonial dress as worn until 1789 comprised an elaborate 16th century Swiss costume covered with braiding and livery lace. A less ornate dark blue and red uniform with bearskin headdress was worn for ordinary duties, the Cent Suisses company was disbanded after Louis XVI left Versailles in October 1789. It was however refounded on 15 July 1814 with an establishment of 136 guardsmen, the Hundred Swiss accompanied Louis XVIII into exile in Belgium the following year and returned with him to Paris following the Battle of Waterloo. The unit then resumed its role of palace guards at the Tuileries. In 1616, King Louis XIII gave a regiment of Swiss infantry the name of Gardes suisses, the new regiment had the primary role of protecting the doors, gates and outer perimeters of the various royal palaces. In its early years this unit was officially a regiment of the line, during the 17th and 18th centuries the Swiss Guards maintained a reputation for discipline and steadiness in both peacetime service and foreign campaigning. Their officers were all Swiss and their rate of pay substantially higher than that of the regular French soldiers, internal discipline was maintained according to Swiss codes which were significantly harsher than those of the regular French Army

30.
United States Army
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The United States Armed Forces are the federal armed forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, from the time of its inception, the military played a decisive role in the history of the United States. A sense of unity and identity was forged as a result of victory in the First Barbary War. Even so, the Founders were suspicious of a permanent military force and it played an important role in the American Civil War, where leading generals on both sides were picked from members of the United States military. Not until the outbreak of World War II did a standing army become officially established. The National Security Act of 1947, adopted following World War II and during the Cold Wars onset, the U. S. military is one of the largest militaries in terms of number of personnel. It draws its personnel from a pool of paid volunteers. As of 2016, the United States spends about $580.3 billion annually to fund its military forces, put together, the United States constitutes roughly 40 percent of the worlds military expenditures. For the period 2010–14, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute found that the United States was the worlds largest exporter of major arms, the United States was also the worlds eighth largest importer of major weapons for the same period. The history of the U. S. military dates to 1775 and these forces demobilized in 1784 after the Treaty of Paris ended the War for Independence. All three services trace their origins to the founding of the Continental Army, the Continental Navy, the United States President is the U. S. militarys commander-in-chief. Rising tensions at various times with Britain and France and the ensuing Quasi-War and War of 1812 quickened the development of the U. S. Navy, the reserve branches formed a military strategic reserve during the Cold War, to be called into service in case of war. Time magazines Mark Thompson has suggested that with the War on Terror, Command over the armed forces is established in the United States Constitution. The sole power of command is vested in the President by Article II as Commander-in-Chief, the Constitution also allows for the creation of executive Departments headed principal officers whose opinion the President can require. This allowance in the Constitution formed the basis for creation of the Department of Defense in 1947 by the National Security Act, the Defense Department is headed by the Secretary of Defense, who is a civilian and member of the Cabinet. The Defense Secretary is second in the chain of command, just below the President. Together, the President and the Secretary of Defense comprise the National Command Authority, to coordinate military strategy with political affairs, the President has a National Security Council headed by the National Security Advisor. The collective body has only power to the President

31.
Negev
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The Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The regions largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba, in the north, at its southern end is the Gulf of Aqaba and the resort city of Eilat. It contains several development towns, including Dimona, Arad and Mitzpe Ramon, as well as a number of small Bedouin cities, including Rahat and Tel as-Sabi and Lakyah. There are also several kibbutzim, including Revivim and Sde Boker, the origin of the word negev is from the Hebrew root denoting dry. In the Bible, the word Negev is also used for the direction south, during the British Mandate it was called Beersheba sub-district. The Negev covers more than half of Israel, over some 13,000 km² or at least 55% of the land area. It forms a triangle shape whose western side is contiguous with the desert of the Sinai Peninsula. The Negev has a number of interesting cultural and geological features, among the latter are three enormous, craterlike makhteshim, which are unique to the region, Makhtesh Ramon, Makhtesh Gadol, and Makhtesh Katan. The Negev is a rocky desert and it is a melange of brown, rocky, dusty mountains interrupted by wadis and deep craters. It can be split into five different ecological regions, northern, western and central Negev, the high plateau, the northern Negev, or Mediterranean zone, receives 300 mm of rain annually and has fairly fertile soils. The western Negev receives 250 mm of rain per year, with light, sand dunes can reach heights of up to 30 metres here. The high plateau area of Ramat HaNegev stands between 370 metres and 520 metres above sea level with temperatures in summer and winter. The area gets 100 mm of rain per year, with inferior, the Arabah Valley along the Jordanian border stretches 180 km from Eilat in the south to the tip of the Dead Sea in the north. The Arabah Valley is very arid with barely 50 mm of rain annually and it has inferior soils in which little can grow without irrigation and special soil additives. Vegetation in the Negev is sparse, but certain trees and plants there, among them Acacia, Pistacia, Retama, Urginea maritima. A small population of Arabian leopards, an animal in the Arabian peninsula. The Negev Tortoise is a endangered species that currently lives only in the sands of the western. The Negev shrew is a species of mammal of the family Soricidae found only in Israel, hyphaene thebaica or doum palm can be found in the Southern Negev

32.
National Security Advisor (United States)
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The APNSA also participates in the meetings of the National Security Council and usually chairs the Principals Committee meetings with the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense. The Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs is appointed by the President without confirmation by the Senate. Ideally, the APNSA serves as an honest broker of policy options for the President in the field of national security, in 1949, the NSC became part of the presidents executive office. The National Security Act of 1947 did not create the position of the National Security Advisor per se, robert Cutler became the first National Security Advisor in 1953. The system has remained unchanged since then, particularly since Kennedys time, with powerful National Security Advisors and strong staff. This continuity persists despite the tendency of new president to replace the advisor and senior NSC staff. Henry Kissinger, President Richard Nixons National Security Advisor, enhanced the importance of the role, controlling the flow of information to the President and meeting him multiple times per day. Henry Kissinger also holds the distinction of serving as National Security Advisor and United States Secretary of State at the time from September 22,1973. Robert Cutler also held the job twice, both times under Dwight D. Eisenhower, henry Kissinger holds the record for longest term of service. Michael Flynn holds the record for shortest term of service, three and Four-Star Generals require Senate confirmation due to the statutory nature requiring Congress to appoint their military rank. United States National Security Council Executive Office of the President Homeland Security Council Homeland Security Advisor 2009-02, The National Security Advisor and Staff

33.
Feud
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Feuds begin because one party perceives itself to have been attacked, insulted or wronged by another. Intense feelings of resentment trigger the initial retribution, which causes the party to feel equally aggrieved. The dispute is subsequently fuelled by a cycle of retaliatory violence. This continual cycle of provocation and retaliation makes it difficult to end the feud peacefully. Feuds frequently involve the original family members and/or associates, can last for generations. They can be interpreted as an outgrowth of social relations based in family honor. Until the early period, feuds were considered legitimate legal instruments and were regulated to some degree. For example, Serb culture calls this krvna osveta, meaning blood revenge, in the English-speaking world, vendetta is sometimes extended to mean any other long-standing feud, not necessarily involving bloodshed. Sometimes, it is not mutual, but rather refers to a series of hostile acts waged by one person against another without reciprocation. Blood feuds were common in societies with a rule of law. An entire family is considered responsible for any one of them has done. Sometimes two separate branches of the family have even come to blows, or worse, over some dispute. The practice has mostly disappeared with more centralized societies where law enforcement, in Homeric ancient Greece, the practice of personal vengeance against wrongdoers was considered natural and customary, Embedded in the Greek morality of retaliation is the right of vengeance. Feud is a war, just as war is a series of revenges. In the ancient Hebraic context, it was considered the duty of the individual, the executor of the law of blood-revenge who personally put the initial killer to death was given a special designation, goel haddam, the blood-avenger or blood-redeemer. Six Cities of Refuge were established to provide protection and due process for any unintentional manslayers, the avenger was forbidden from harming the unintentional killer if the killer took refuge in one of these cities. According to historian Marc Bloch, The Middle Ages, from beginning to end, the onus, of course, lay above all on the wronged individual, vengeance was imposed on him as the most sacred of duties. The solitary individual, however, could do but little, moreover, it was most commonly a death that had to be avenged

34.
Smear campaign
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A smear campaign, smear tactic or simply smear is an effort to damage or call into question someones reputation, by propounding negative propaganda. It can be applied to individuals or groups, common targets are public officials, politicians, political candidates, activists and ex-spouses. The term also applies in other such as the workplace. The phrase smear campaign became popular from around 1936, a smear campaign is an intentional, premeditated effort to undermine an individuals or groups reputation, credibility, and character. Like negative campaigning, most often smear campaigns target government officials, politicians, political candidates, however, private persons or groups may also become targets of smear campaigns perpetrated in companies, institutions, the legal system, and other formal groups. Smear tactics differ from normal discourse or debate in that they do not bear upon the issues or arguments in question, a smear is a simple attempt to malign a group or an individual with the aim of undermining their credibility. Smears often consist of ad hominem attacks in the form of unverifiable rumors and distortions, half-truths, or even outright lies, smear campaigns are often propagated by gossip magazines. Even when the facts behind a campaign are demonstrated to lack proper foundation. Smears are also effective in diverting attention away from the matter in question, the target of the smear typically must focus on correcting the false information rather than on the original issue. Deflection has been described as a smear, You make up something. Then you have the press write about it, and then you say, everybody is writing about this charge. Smear tactics are considered by many to be a low, disingenuous form of discourse, smear campaigns have been identified as a common weapon of psychopaths and narcissists. In many countries, the law recognizes the value of reputation, both libel and slander are often punishable by law and may result in imprisonment or compensation or fees for damages done. Smear tactics are used to undermine effective arguments or critiques. During the 1856 presidential election, John C, frémont was the target of a smear campaign alleging that he was a Catholic. The campaign was designed to support for Fremont from those who were suspicious of Catholics. Ralph Nader was the victim of a campaign during the 1960s. In order to smear Nader and deflect attention from his campaign

35.
Mexico
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Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan

36.
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
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The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist and revolutionary socialist organization founded in 1967 by George Habash. It has consistently been the second-largest of the forming the Palestine Liberation Organization. Currently, the PFLP is boycotting participation in the committee of the PLO. PFLP is described as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada, Australia, the relationship between the PFLP and the Islamic Republic of Iran has fluctuated – it strengthened as a result of Hamas moving away from Iran due to differing positions on the Syrian Civil War. Iran rewarded the PFLP for its pro-Assad stance with an increase in financial, the PFLP has generally taken a hard line on Palestinian national aspirations, opposing the more moderate stance of Fatah. It does not recognise the State of Israel and opposes negotiations with the Israeli government, the military wing of the PFLP is called the Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades. The PFLP is well known for pioneering armed aircraft hijackings in the late 1960s, the PFLP grew out of the Harakat al-Qawmiyyin al-Arab, or Arab Nationalist Movement, founded in 1953 by George Habash, a Palestinian Christian, from Lydda. In 1948, 19-year-old Habash, a student, went to his home town of Lydda during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War to help his family. While he was there, the Israel Defense Forces attacked the city and they marched for three days without food or water until they reached the Arab armies front lines. Habash finished his education in Lebanon at the American University in Beirut. In an interview with US journalist John K. Cooley, Habash identified the Arab defeat by the Zionists as the society of Israel as against our own backwardness in the Arab world. This called for the rebuilding of Arab society into a twentieth-century society. The ANM was founded in this nationalist spirit, held the Guevara view of the revolutionary human being, Habash told Cooley. A new breed of man had to emerge, among the Arabs as everywhere else and this meant applying everything in human power to the realization of a cause. The ANM formed underground branches in several Arab countries, including Libya, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and it adopted secularism and socialist economic ideas, and pushed for armed struggle. In collaboration with the Palestinian Liberation Army, the ANM established Abtal al-Audah as a group in 1966. After the Six-Day War of June 1967, ANM merged in August with two groups, Youth for Revenge and Ahmed Jibrils Syrian-backed Palestine Liberation Front, to form the PFLP. By early 1968, the PFLP had trained between one and three thousand guerrillas and it had the financial backing of Syria, and was headquartered there, and one of its training camps was based in as-Salt, Jordan

37.
Plutonium
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Plutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is a metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation states and it reacts with carbon, halogens, nitrogen, silicon and hydrogen. When exposed to moist air, it forms oxides and hydrides that can expand the sample up to 70% in volume and it is radioactive and can accumulate in bones, which makes the handling of plutonium dangerous. Plutonium was first produced and isolated on December 14,1940 by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, Joseph W. Kennedy, Edwin M. McMillan, wahl by deuteron bombardment of uranium-238 in the 60-inch cyclotron at the University of California, Berkeley. They first synthesized neptunium-238 which subsequently beta-decayed to form a new element with atomic number 94. Uranium had been named after the planet Uranus and neptunium after the planet Neptune, and so element 94 was named after Pluto, wartime secrecy prevented them from announcing the discovery until 1948. Plutonium is the heaviest element to occur in nature as trace quantities arising similarly from the capture of natural uranium-238. Both plutonium-239 and plutonium-241 are fissile, meaning that they can sustain a chain reaction, leading to applications in nuclear weapons. Plutonium-240 exhibits a high rate of fission, raising the neutron flux of any sample containing it. The presence of plutonium-240 limits a plutonium samples usability for weapons or its quality as reactor fuel, plutonium-238 has a half-life of 88 years and emits alpha particles. It is a source in radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which are used to power some spacecraft. Plutonium isotopes are expensive and inconvenient to separate, so particular isotopes are usually manufactured in specialized reactors, producing plutonium in useful quantities for the first time was a major part of the Manhattan Project during World War II that developed the first atomic bombs. The Fat Man bombs used in the Trinity nuclear test in July 1945, Human radiation experiments studying plutonium were conducted without informed consent, and several criticality accidents, some lethal, occurred after the war. Disposal of plutonium waste from power plants and dismantled nuclear weapons built during the Cold War is a nuclear-proliferation. Other sources of plutonium in the environment are fallout from numerous above-ground nuclear tests, Plutonium, like most metals, has a bright silvery appearance at first, much like nickel, but it oxidizes very quickly to a dull gray, although yellow and olive green are also reported. At room temperature plutonium is in its α form and this, the most common structural form of the element, is about as hard and brittle as gray cast iron unless it is alloyed with other metals to make it soft and ductile. Unlike most metals, it is not a conductor of heat or electricity

38.
East Germany
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East Germany, formally the German Democratic Republic, was an Eastern Bloc state during the Cold War period. The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin, but did not include it, as a result, the German Democratic Republic was established in the Soviet Zone, while the Federal Republic was established in the three western zones. East Germany, which lies culturally in Central Germany, was a state of the Soviet Union. Soviet occupation authorities began transferring administrative responsibility to German communist leaders in 1948, Soviet forces, however, remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Until 1989, the GDR was governed by the Socialist Unity Party, though other parties participated in its alliance organisation. The economy was centrally planned, and increasingly state-owned, prices of basic goods and services were set by central government planners, rather than rising and falling through supply and demand. Although the GDR had to pay war reparations to the USSR. Nonetheless it did not match the growth of West Germany. Emigration to the West was a significant problem—as many of the emigrants were well-educated young people, the government fortified its western borders and, in 1961, built the Berlin Wall. Many people attempting to flee were killed by guards or booby traps. In 1989, numerous social and political forces in the GDR and abroad led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the following year open elections were held, and international negotiations led to the signing of the Final Settlement treaty on the status and borders of Germany. The GDR was dissolved and Germany was unified on 3 October 1990, internally, the GDR also bordered the Soviet sector of Allied-occupied Berlin known as East Berlin which was also administered as the states de facto capital. It also bordered the three sectors occupied by the United States, United Kingdom and France known collectively as West Berlin. The three sectors occupied by the Western nations were sealed off from the rest of the GDR by the Berlin Wall from its construction in 1961 until it was brought down in 1989, the official name was Deutsche Demokratische Republik, usually abbreviated to DDR. West Germans, the media and statesmen purposely avoided the official name and its abbreviation, instead using terms like Ostzone, Sowjetische Besatzungszone. The centre of power in East Berlin was referred to as Pankow. Over time, however, the abbreviation DDR was also used colloquially by West Germans. However, this use was not always consistent, for example, before World War II, Ostdeutschland was used to describe all the territories east of the Elbe, as reflected in the works of sociologist Max Weber and political theorist Carl Schmitt

39.
German reunification
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The end of the unification process is officially referred to as German unity, celebrated on 3 October. Following German reunification, Berlin was once designated as the capital of united Germany. The East German regime started to falter in May 1989, when the removal of Hungarys border fence with Austria opened a hole in the Iron Curtain and it caused an exodus of thousands of East Germans fleeing to West Germany and Austria via Hungary. The united Germany is the continuation of the Federal Republic. For political and diplomatic reasons, West German politicians carefully avoided the term reunification during the run-up to what Germans frequently refer to as die Wende, after 1990, the term die Wende became more common. The term generally refers to the events led up to the actual reunification, in its usual context. When referring to the events surrounding unification, however, it carries the connotation of the time. However, anti-communist activists from Eastern Germany rejected the term Wende as it was introduced by SEDs Secretary General Egon Krenz, the capital city of Berlin was divided into four occupied sectors of control, under the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Germans lived under such imposed divisions throughout the ensuing Cold War, into the 1980s, the Soviet Union experienced a period of economic and political stagnation, and they correspondingly decreased intervention in Eastern Bloc politics. In 1987, US President Ronald Reagan gave a speech at Brandenburg Gate challenging Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down this wall that had separated Berlin. The wall had stood as an icon for the political and economic division between East and West, a division that Churchill had referred to as the Iron Curtain. In early 1989, under a new era of Soviet policies of glasnost, perestroika and taken to more progressive levels by Gorbachev. Further inspired by images of brave defiance, a wave of revolutions swept throughout the Eastern Bloc that year. In May 1989, Hungary removed their border fence and thousands of East Germans escaped to the West, however, events rapidly came to a head in early 1990. First, in March, the Party of Democratic Socialism—the former Socialist Unity Party of Germany—was heavily defeated in East Germanys first free elections. A grand coalition was formed under Lothar de Maizière, leader of the East German wing of Kohls Christian Democratic Union, on a platform of speedy reunification, second, East Germanys economy and infrastructure underwent a swift and near-total collapse. While East Germany had long been reckoned as having the most robust economy in the Soviet bloc, the East German mark had been practically worthless outside East Germany for some time before the events of 1989–90 further magnified the problem. Discussions immediately began for a merger of the German economies

40.
Thermonuclear weapon
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A thermonuclear weapon is a nuclear weapon that uses the energy from a primary nuclear fission reaction to compress and ignite a secondary nuclear fusion reaction. The result is greatly increased power when compared to single-stage fission weapons. It is colloquially referred to as a bomb or an H-bomb because it employs the fusion of isotopes of hydrogen. The first full scale thermonuclear test was carried out by the United States in 1952, similar devices were developed by the Soviet Union, United Kingdom, China, and France. The radiation implosion mechanism is an engine that exploits the temperature difference between the secondary stages hot, surrounding radiation channel and its relatively cool interior. This temperature difference is maintained by a massive heat barrier called the pusher. If made of uranium, as is almost always the case, it can capture neutrons produced by the reaction and undergo fission itself. In many Teller–Ulam weapons, fission of the pusher dominates the explosion, detailed knowledge of fission and fusion weapons is classified to some degree in virtually every industrialized nation. Born secret is rarely invoked for cases of private speculation, in a small number of prior cases, the U. S. government has attempted to censor weapons information in the public press, with limited success. According to the New York Times, physicist Kenneth Ford defied government orders to remove classified information from his new book, Building the H Bomb, the state of public knowledge about the Teller–Ulam design has been mostly shaped from a few specific incidents outlined in a section below. At a bare minimum, this implies a primary section consists of an implosion-type fission bomb. The energy released by the primary compresses the secondary through a process called radiation implosion, at which point it is heated, surrounding the other components is a hohlraum or radiation case, a container that traps the first stage or primarys energy inside temporarily. The outside of this case, which is also normally the outside casing of the bomb, is the only direct visual evidence publicly available of any thermonuclear bomb components configuration. Numerous photographs of various thermonuclear bomb exteriors have been declassified, generally, a research program with the capacity to create a thermonuclear bomb has already mastered the ability to engineer boosted fission. The secondary is usually shown as a column of fusion fuel, around the column is first a pusher-tamper, a heavy layer of uranium-238 or lead that serves to help compress the fusion fuel. Inside this is the fuel itself, usually a form of lithium deuteride. This dry fuel, when bombarded by neutrons, produces tritium, inside the layer of fuel is the spark plug, a hollow column of fissile material that, when compressed, can itself undergo nuclear fission. The tertiary, if one is present, would be set below the secondary, separating the secondary from the primary is the interstage

41.
Super Bowl
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The Super Bowl is the annual championship game of the National Football League. The game is the culmination to a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. Normally, Roman numerals are used to each game, rather than the year in which it is held. For example, Super Bowl I was played on January 15,1967, the single exception to this rule is Super Bowl 50, which was played on February 7,2016, following the 2015 regular season. The next game, Super Bowl LII, scheduled for February 4,2018, the game was created as part of a merger agreement between the NFL and its then-rival league, the American Football League. It was agreed that the two champion teams would play in the AFL–NFL World Championship Game until the merger was to officially begin in 1970. After the merger, each league was redesignated as a conference, currently, the National Football Conference leads the league with 26 wins to 25 wins for the American Football Conference. The Pittsburgh Steelers have the most Super Bowl championship titles, with six, the New England Patriots have the most Super Bowl appearances, with nine. The day on which the Super Bowl is played, now considered by some as an unofficial American national holiday, is called Super Bowl Sunday and it is the second-largest day for U. S. food consumption, after Thanksgiving Day. In addition, the Super Bowl has frequently been the most-watched American television broadcast of the year, in 2015, Super Bowl XLIX became the most-watched American television program in history with an average audience of 114. The NFL restricts the use of its Super Bowl trademark, it is called the Big Game or other generic terms by non-sponsoring corporations. As a result, watching and discussing the broadcasts commercials has become a significant aspect of the event, for four decades after its 1920 inception, the NFL successfully fended off several rival leagues. However, in 1960, it encountered its most serious competitor when the American Football League was formed. The AFL vied heavily with the NFL for both players and fans, but by the middle of the decade the strain of competition led to merger talks between the two leagues. Prior to the 1966 season, the NFL and AFL reached an agreement that was to take effect for the 1970 season. As part of the merger, the champions of the two agreed to meet in a world championship game for professional American football until the merger was effected. A bowl game is a college football game. Exploiting the Rose Bowl Games popularity, post-season college football contests were created for Miami, New Orleans, and El Paso, Texas in 1935, by the time the first Super Bowl was played, the term bowl for any major American football game was well established

42.
Denver
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Denver, officially the City and County of Denver, is the capital and most populous municipality of the U. S. state of Colorado. Denver is in the South Platte River Valley on the edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The Denver downtown district is immediately east of the confluence of Cherry Creek with the South Platte River, Denver is nicknamed the Mile-High City because its official elevation is exactly one mile above sea level, making it the highest major city in the United States. The 105th meridian west of Greenwich, the reference for the Mountain Time Zone. Denver is ranked as a Beta- world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. With a 2015 estimated population of 682,545, Denver ranks as the 19th-most populous U. S. city, and with a 2. 8% increase in 2015, the city is also the fastest-growing major city in the United States. The 10-county Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area had an estimated 2015 population of 2,814,330 and ranked as the 19th most populous U. S. metropolitan statistical area. The 12-city Denver-Aurora, CO Combined Statistical Area had an estimated 2015 population of 3,418,876, which ranks as the 16th most populous U. S. metropolitan area. Denver is the most populous city of the 18-county Front Range Urban Corridor, Denver is the most populous city within a 500-mile radius and the second-most populous city in the Mountain West after Phoenix, Arizona. In 2016, Denver was named the best place to live in the USA by U. S. News & World Report and this was the first historical settlement in what was later to become the city of Denver. The site faded quickly, however, and by the summer of 1859 it was abandoned in favor of Auraria, Larimer named the townsite Denver City to curry favor with Kansas Territorial Governor James W. Denver. Larimer hoped the name would help make it the county seat of Arapaho County but, unbeknownst to him. The location was accessible to existing trails and was across the South Platte River from the site of seasonal encampments of the Cheyenne, the site of these first towns is now the site of Confluence Park near downtown Denver. Larimer, along with associates in the St. Charles City Land Company, sold parcels in the town to merchants and miners, Denver City was a frontier town, with an economy based on servicing local miners with gambling, saloons, livestock and goods trading. In the early years, land parcels were often traded for grubstakes or gambled away by miners in Auraria, in May 1859, Denver City residents donated 53 lots to the Leavenworth & Pikes Peak Express in order to secure the regions first overland wagon route. Offering daily service for passengers, mail, freight, and gold, in 1863, Western Union furthered Denvers dominance of the region by choosing the city for its regional terminus. The Colorado Territory was created on February 28,1861, Arapahoe County was formed on November 1,1861, Denver City served as the Arapahoe County Seat from 1861 until consolidation in 1902. In 1867, Denver City became the territorial capital, with its newfound importance, Denver City shortened its name to Denver

43.
False flag
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While Kormoran was fatally damaged in the engagement and its crew captured the outcome represented a considerable psychological victory for the Germans. In December 1922–February 1923, Rules concerning the Control of Wireless Telegraphy in Time of War and Air Warfare, drafted by a commission of jurists at the Hague regulates, a military aircraft must carry an exterior mark indicating its nationality and its military character. The use of false exterior marks is forbidden, during the trial, a number of arguments were advanced to substantiate this position and the German and U. S. military seem to have been in agreement. The foregoing rule, does not prohibit such use, but does prohibit their improper use and it is certainly forbidden to make use of them during a combat. Before opening fire upon the enemy, they must be discarded, the American Soldiers Handbook was also quoted by Defense Counsel, The use of the enemy flag, insignia, and uniform is permitted under some circumstances. They are not to be used during fighting, and if used in order to approach the enemy without drawing fire. Subsequently, the outcome of the trial has been codified in the 1977 Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and it is prohibited to kill, injure, or capture an adversary by resort to perfidy. Ruses of war are not prohibited, the following are examples of such ruses, the use of camouflage, decoys, mock operations and disinformation. It is prohibited to use of the distinctive emblem of the United Nations. It is prohibited to use in an armed conflict of the flags or military emblems. It is prohibited to use of the flags or military emblems, insignia or uniforms of adverse Parties while engaging in attacks or in order to shield, favour. A false flag in the domain is slightly different and easier to perpetrate than in other physical theaters of war. This misdirection tactic can cause misattribution or misperception which can lead to retaliation against the wrong adversary, in 1788, the head tailor at the Royal Swedish Opera received an order to sew a number of Russian military uniforms. These were then used by the Swedes to stage an attack on Puumala and this caused an outrage in Stockholm and impressed the Riksdag of the Estates, the Swedish national assembly, who until then had refused to agree to an offensive war against Russia. The Puumala incident allowed King Gustav III of Sweden, who lacked the authority to initiate unprovoked hostilities without the Estates consent. In September 1931, Japanese officers fabricated a pretext for invading Manchuria by blowing up a section of railway, the Gleiwitz incident in 1939 involved Reinhard Heydrich fabricating evidence of a Polish attack against Germany to mobilize German public opinion for war and to justify the war with Poland. Alfred Naujocks was a key organiser of the operation orders from Heydrich. It led to the deaths of Nazi concentration camp victims who were dressed as German soldiers and this, along with other false flag operations in Operation Himmler, would be used to mobilize support from the German population for the start of World War II in Europe

The U.S. and USSR conducted hundreds of nuclear tests, including the Desert Rock exercises at the Nevada Test Site, USA, pictured above during the Korean War to familiarize their soldiers with conducting operations and counter-measures around nuclear detonations, as the Korean War threatened to expand.

Israeli officers of the Paratrooper Battalion 890 in 1955 with Moshe Dayan (standing, third from the left). Ariel Sharon is standing, second from the left and commando Meir Har Zion is standing furthest left.

A tactical nuclear weapon (TNW) or non-strategic nuclear weapon is a nuclear weapon which is designed to be used on a …

U.S. officials view a W54 nuclear warhead (with a 10 or 20 ton explosive yield) as used on the Davy Crockettrecoilless gun. The unusually small size of this tactical nuclear weapon is visible.

US scientists with a full-scale cut-away model of the W48, a very small tactical nuclear weapon with an explosive yield equivalent to 72 tons of TNT (0.072 kiloton). Around a thousand of these shells were produced during the Cold War.

A smear campaign, also referred to as a smear tactic or simply a smear, is an effort to damage or call into question …

"The Great Republican Reform Party Calling on their Candidate", an 1856 print which is a political cartoon about John C. Frémont, the first Republican party candidate for president of the United States. There was a political campaign smear rumor current in 1856 that Fremont was a Catholic (the purpose of which was to prevent Fremont from gaining support from those who were suspicious of Catholics).